


shishi-odori

by theformerone



Series: the ballad of the slug sage [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Foreshadowing, Gen, Non-binary character, Slug Sage Sakura, shikamaru has a huge crush on sakura, the nara spirits are having a baby!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-01
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2019-04-30 08:26:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14492883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theformerone/pseuds/theformerone
Summary: She is the only one outside of the Nara allowed on their lands.Or, Sakura is a puzzle that Shikamaru isn't sure if he should solve.





	shishi-odori

**Author's Note:**

> title lifted from a shinto deer dance, usually performed in northeastern japan.

Sakura has become a puzzle that Shikamaru isn't sure if he should solve.

She is the only person outside of the Nara allowed on their lands, and not only in the main houses, but deep into the dense forests, the ones so dark they intimidated even the Shodaime. 

Shikamaru is no fool. He has seen her since she returned from her contracting mission. He was there when she plummeted from nowhere into the Godaime's office. And he has seen the way the Hyūga have changed since she journeyed into their compound. And by now, Shikamaru and all of their year mates know that Sakura is leaving the village soon, for an indeterminate amount of time. 

And she has made alliances with the Hyūga and the Hatake. Now, it appears, with the Nara as well.

She is making waves, and big ones at that. 

Shikamaru has always known something of the spirits that live on the Nara land. They had chosen him after all, when he was a newborn to lead the clan after his father. He had grown up near them, had gone into the forest to meet them with his parents every birthday, and for every promotion.

Kasuga had licked his cheek when he had been promoted to chuunin; Itsukushima had sat beside him, sturdy as the surrounding trees when Shikamaru told him how he almost lost Chouji on the Sasuke Retrieval Mission. 

He had been called away the day that Sakura had met the two spirits, likely because it was his parents' business and not his own. There were some things that Shikamaru did not need to be privy to, though he was clan heir. Everything relating to the forest spirits and those they thought worthy of being that deep in Nara land. 

Now, it is different. Kasuga is pregnant. 

The forest spirit has never bore a fawn, not in the entire history of the Nara. There had never been any need to. The Nara herds had always been healthy, and the Nara themselves had not needed the spirits in battle since the Warring States Period. 

Lower level spirits like the Nara deer spirits and the Hatake wolves only had young when they wanted to, and they usually only wanted to in times of stress. Bearing young meant additional power, and additional power meant further protection for the spirits and for the families they protected.

But it was difficult to raise a young spirit into adulthood as well, or at least that was what Itsukushima had said to Shikamaru's ancestors. Young spirits were easy prey for humans that wanted to eat their hearts, and absorb their chakra for the sake of great power.

The stress that necessitated the birth of new spirits, as well as the stress that came with raising them almost uniformly ensured that young spirits without the aid of those several times as powerful as their parents, were rarely born.

But Kasuga was pregnant.

The Nara are quiet about the pregnancy, but inside of the compound they are rife with joy. Bickering siblings are quicker to joke with each other, wives kiss their husbands in full view of the extended family; even the little baby cousins can feel the shift in mood. 

With the life growing inside of Kasuga, the chakra of the Nara grows stronger. As do their bonds with shadow, as do their bonds with their herds, as do their bonds with each other. 

Shikamaru's mother is shockingly kind. She is more cheerful than she usually is, offering spears of watermelon and pineapple slices to everyone that comes around the main house. She wears her hair down, and calls out to her in-laws to join her on the porch for a snack. 

His father is equally as relaxed, his scarred face at ease in a way that his usual easy aloof-ness attempts but does not perfectly imitate. He's more affectionate with them; he leaves his arm around Yoshino's waist, he ruffles Shikamaru's hair, tugs affectionately at his earring like he did when Shikamaru was twelve. 

And Sakura is there. 

The Nara have come to accept her after some time. They are similarly wary of her, but once they heard from their clan head that the spirits had accepted Sakura, so too, had the Nara. The children run to her to fix their scraped knees, the elders hold her ear about homeopathic salves and ointments that work as effectively as ("Better than," Shikari-obaa-sama would snipe) modern medicine. 

Those closer to her age ask her for spars or advice on how to get on the Godaime's good side. Shikamaru has a good number of cousins that are gunning for being field medics, and getting a letter of recommendation from the Godaime's own apprentice would smooth along the process in a very pleasant way. 

She snorts at Shikaku's jokes, she helps Yoshino in the kitchen, and she smiles at Shikamaru like he knows something that he doesn't. Shikamaru looks at her forehead, where she is still figuring out which shade of concealer to use to hide the four purple seals on her forehead, and he is positive that Sakura knows things that would make him tremble. 

And that really,  _really_ shouldn't be as attractive as it is. 

She isn't an enigma, per se. Shikamaru is sure that if he spent enough time asking questions, poking around, he could figure out why exactly she was the 'spiritual liaison' to the Nara family. He was positive it had something to do with her summoning mission to Shikkotsu, but there were a handful of answers that he needed to put the entire story together. 

It only took that handful of answers to make him want to be closer to her. And then, well, her peach smell, her light laughter, and the way her attitude could turn on a dime just like his mother's - well, he hadn't been able to stand a chance. 

Shikaku had laughed at him, threw an arm around his neck and said, "Cover your ass when you covet another guy's girl."

Shikamaru had shrugged his father's arm off of him, and had stomped off to help his uncles catch a naked five year old Nara that had  _somehow_ figured out shadow manipulation at high noon and thought that his uncles chasing him down was an elaborate game of shadow tag.

Having a crush on Haruno Sakura is complicated. Mostly because anyone with eyes can tell that she and Neji are involved. Partly because she's Ino's best friend, and Ino would eat him alive if he could make a move on Sakura, and now will absolutely _devour_ him because he's _pining._  

Shikamaru nabs his little cousin around the waist and deposits the boy into his mother's arms. She pats his cheek affectionately, saying something about how he had run around the compound naked when he was that young. 

And between the naked five year old, the embarrassing story, and his parents and Sakura both laughing at him from the porch, Shikamaru hides the flush on his neck with his hand. 

"Man," he grumbles. "What a drag."

* * *

 

It's a rainy spring day, undercutting the usual humidity. 

Shikamaru is sitting on his back porch, bare feet catching the cool rain. He kicks them back in forth, eyes up on the sky, watching the storm clouds roll through and roll out of the village. It looks like a week of rain. It'll fill the small springs within the dark Nara forest, providing water for the herds and for the spirits therein. 

Shikamaru likes sunny days best, sunny days with a smattering of fluffy white clouds. He always has. But rainy days are just as good. Even though it's more of a hassle to watch the sky, the rain makes everyone as easygoing as he feels, and it's nice to have the whole village on his own personal clock. 

Younger cousins splash around in the puddles of the compound, while a couple of older ones use the rain to help their suiton techniques. His mother is in the forest, and his father is out at work, unable like most of the Nara to get the full duration of Kasuga's pregnancy off. 

Shikamaru has no missions and he is grateful for it. He is happy to have the day to himself. He opens his mouth to correct one of his cousin's techniques when he hears footsteps from behind him. 

He turns, and there is Sakura, dressed in soft greens rather than her usual blaring red. She's wearing a pair of white house slippers that his mother had set out for her when she first started coming onto Nara land, once she had been accepted by the spirits. It was all the indication Shikamaru had needed for how he and the other Nara had to treat Sakura from now on. 

"Afternoon," she says, smiling at him. 

"Afternoon," he replies. 

"Mind if I have a seat?"

"Not at all."

She nods, and slips off her house shoes as she sits down. Her toenails are painted a bright blue, metallic and shimmery. He's seen that same color on Ino's nails, and knows this must mean that the two of them have made up from whatever fight they had suffered through some time ago.

He had figured it out when Ino had called him and Chouji over to her house, mascara running from sobbing out furious tears and demanding they buy her so much barbecue she couldn't be angry past a mountain of ribs. He had found out in no uncertain terms after that, that Sakura was leaving, and it had driven a wedge in her lifelong friendship with Ino. 

He is happy, though, to see that they are reconciling. Losing Sakura is a blow that Ino is still grappling with, and the fact that they are trying must mean the world to Ino. Difficult for her as well, because she was stubborn like no other, especially when she thought that she was being wronged or hurt in some way. But Sakura's blue toenail polish was a step in the right direction, if Shikamaru knew Ino like he thought he did. 

"My mom's in the forest if that's who you came to see," he offers, looking out at his cousins and their playing. 

Sakura hums, acknowledging him. She pushes her bangs out of her eyes, the bright red ribbon Ino had given her when they were still academy students tied affectionately around her upper arm. 

"I wouldn't want to interrupt her," she says, twirling a piece of hair around her finger. "I can wait until she gets back."

Shikamaru nods, looking up from where Sakura sticks her toes in the mud beneath the porch, to the cousins playing outside. The main Nara house was like a fortress, whose front was pristine in its structure, but whose back opened up to the entirety of the compound. The houses all circled a clearing in the middle, a small meadow where all of the children gathered to play. 

Shikamaru had fond memories of the meadow between the houses of the Nara clan, of jogging to his uncles houses to pester them for shogi games, and ducking behind an auntie's apron so their shadows were meshed together when playing a game of Nara-hide-and-seek. 

"How've you been?" he asks, interrupting the silence. 

An older Nara girl catches a younger one, a toddler by the shadow before he falls face first into a mud puddle. She stands upright, and he squeals with delight as she helps them both leap over the puddle he nearly fell into. 

"Well," Sakura replies, voice light as the rain. "I've been really well. Ino and I had lunch. We talked a lot."

"I can imagine," he says, huffing out a laugh. 

Sakura rolls her eyes at that, hooking her ankles together and leaning back into her palms. 

"Has she told you about the Hinata situation?" Sakura asks. 

Shikamaru runs a hand over his face. 

"She won't  _not_ tell me about the Hinata situation."

She laughs at that, and Shikamaru can't help but chuckle as well. 

"She hasn't been this sprung on anyone since Sasuke," Sakura says. "It's nice to see her have a crush."

"Nice for you maybe," he quips. "She's even worse than she used to be, gathering gossip about the Hyūga from the distant family members that come into the flower shop, bothering the civilian mothers who send their kids to the Hyūga school."

Sakura smirks at that, uncrosses her ankles, and kicks her legs so that they catch the rain the way Shikamaru's feet do. 

"Bet you fifty ryo she confesses via bouquet," Sakura says, cocking her head towards him. 

Shikamaru nearly chokes on his spit, not only because that is a ridiculous bet (Ino would  _absolutely_ confess with a bouquet; she was a hardass, but she was a softie like no other), and not only because Sakura is looking at him with that way of hers (her green eyes blinking slowly, bright and fresh as the grass the little cousins are traipsing on, her hair fluttering in her ponytail with the cool breeze) but mostly because of the way his feet are suddenly stuck mid-swing. 

When one married into the Nara family, they had to learn how to manipulate shadow. Shikari-obaa-sama had said Yoshino had taken to the art with an aplomb not seen for many generations from a woman born outside of the clan. The only person that rivaled her was her husband. 

Even on rainy days like this one, Yoshino's range is excellent. She has managed to melt her shadow with the darkness of the Nara forest, compiling a shadow so massive that she is able to touch those of every adult Nara currently on the compound, and even the ones of those outside of it. 

Shikamaru's eyes catch Sakura. They both blink. 

"Kasuga-sama," she breathes. "Isn't it too soon?"

"Guess not," Shikamaru replies.

His mother's massive shadow drifts away, slinking back into the forest proper. The adults in their houses all come out onto their porches, looking to Shikamaru since Yoshino is in the forest, and Shikaku is away.

Shikamaru stands, not bothering with shoes. His feet slide wetly into the mud, but it's of no concern to him. Now that he thinks about it, he can feel it, faintly. A pulse, a tugging on his chakra. It is soft at first, probably because Kasuga is drawing on the chakra of all the Nara and not just one. 

If she needed the chakra of a clan and only had one Nara, it would be a much different feeling. 

As of now, her contractions are strange, oddly pleasant. She draws in their chakra, and gives them back her own, reaffirming her bond with them, and in turn, her fawn's bond with the Nara as well. 

"Gather the offerings and bring them to the lip of the forest," he bellows, stepping lightly into his authority. It is strange to have them look to him for instruction, these people that have raised him and have been raised alongside him. "When the Nara outside of the compound arrive, instruct them to do the same. My father will come in after us."

They nod, and begin guiding their little ones inside. The older ones, not yet genin and so not yet adults, help their parents, their aunts and uncles and cousins, ferry the smaller children into their houses, and prepare the offerings of fruit and sake for the newborn spirit and its parents. 

"Us?"

He looks to where Sakura is standing, where mud cakes up against her pretty ankle. Shikamaru snorts, if only to hide how utterly infatuated he feels. 

"She grabbed you, too," he replies. "And if you can feel it the way we do, then Kasuga-sama wants you there."

Sakura purses her lips, looking behind her to the Nara house, then forward at the edge of the forest, where the trees lean down their hungry branches to the offerings the Nara have already begun to place there. 

"Let's go then," she says.

* * *

 

The garlands of flowers are carefully stepped around, their perfume heady as the two of them enter the forest. 

There are tidy bowls of rice, carefully protected from the rain, whole and cut pieces of fruit and vegetables, and tidy bottles of sweet sake, because Kasuga loves sweet things. The vegetables are for Itsukushima, and for the fawn, if their taste is like their father's. 

It says something about how safe, how secure in her own power, and of the power of the Nara that Kasuga has decided not to bear her own young, but to combine her strength with Itsukushima's to create the first of their line. It meant something extraordinary for the future progeny of the Nara clan.

The two of them are quiet as they enter the forest, looking to be as silent as the trees around them. Shikamaru does not need to see with his eyes. His shadow-sense tells him where the herds of deer are, and where the spirits rest, alongside his mother. 

Sakura doesn't seem to need much of his help, or any of it at all. She glides through the forest like she belongs there, barefooted as a Nara woman.

He is grateful it is too dark for Sakura to see the flush that rises on his cheeks at the thought. He feels her move alongside him, then, there is a change in the air. It is followed very shortly by a strike of lightning so bright, Shikamaru can see it through the dense canopy of the Nara forest. A clap of thunder comes not too long after, and not for the first time, Shikamaru wonders about the extent of Kasuga's power. 

She is the older and stronger of the two spirits on the Nara land, and she is about to mother the third. While her pregnancy may have added to the strength of the clan, it was clear that it was making her stronger as well. 

They double their pace forward, each following the other. Shikamaru follows his shadow-sense, and Sakura following whatever it was that took her in the same direction. 

She diverts once, veering a hard left where Shikamaru wants to go right. He reaches out for her, not snatching her shadow but grabbing her wrist. She acts on instinct, twisting out of his grip and he winces in sympathy; he's a shinobi, he should know better. 

But Kasuga's chakra is thrumming in and out of his system, with the faintest flecks of the fawn's coming life. It's making him excited, jumpy. Ready. 

He turns, ready to apologize to Sakura. But when he looks at her, his jaw drops around his words. 

Her eyes are glazed over with a white film, clearly blinding her. There are circles, riveting out from the cherry blossom shaped seals on her forehead, coming down over her cheeks, and onto her palms. 

She cannot see, but it is clear that she sees through him. 

"This way," she says, without force but with an implied threat if he tries to go against her a second time, "is faster."

He follows the blind girl through the forest, holding his breath as he goes. There are many more things still that he does not know about Sakura, and the strategist, the analyst, the curious child playing with his father's shōgi board within him, is yearning to know what those things are. 

* * *

 They come upon Itsukushima, and his stark blue pelt. The buck is massive, larger than any of the adult bucks on the Nara land, and his pale blue coat almost glitters in the darkness. He looks down at them with the eyes in his head, and the many eyes on his antlers. The eyes assess the two humans intruding as his mate gives birth. 

"Go to her," he says, voice like the thunderclaps heralding the birth of his firstborn. 

Shikamaru bows deeply, and Sakura follows suit. Itsukushima is the more reserved of the two spirits, more deeply serious where Kasuga is playful and motherly. The many eyes on his antlers watch as Shikamaru and Sakura head towards where Yoshino is crouched by Kasuga. 

The green pelted spirit's ears are flicking back as she pushes. Yoshino has her palms on the ground, carefully feeding her chakra into the land so that Kasuga may take nourishment from it directly. The usual dancing white flowers on Kasuga's pelt have coalesced into a sprawling beech tree, whose roots begin at her front hooves and whose branches envelop her throat, and a second yaezakura tree that goes up her hind legs. 

"Maru-chan," Kasuga says in affectionate greeting. 

Shikamaru bows to her, placing his hands on the ground beside his mother so that he may relieve her. Momentarily, Yoshino flags in relief, and relaxes her stream of chakra into a slower trickle now that Shikamaru is supplementing her. 

"Kasuga-sama," he replies in greeting. 

"You brought Momo-chan with you," Kasuga coos. 

Sakura comes to her knees on Shikamaru's other side, and mimics his actions immediately. 

"Hello, Kasuga-sama," she says softly. "Are you well?" 

Kasuga flicks her ears back and then forward. She is bearing down, unused to birthing contractions because she has never experienced them before, but not likely to shy away from the new experience. Her hind leg, the one that is not on the ground, rises lazily into the air as she tries to make space for the fawn that is preparing to be born.

"Very, sweet child," she says. "I am happy you and Maru-chan are close friends. He is a good boy. I knew the moment I saw him."

Sakura smiles, offering her chakra to the spirit. 

"He is a very good boy, Kasuga-sama, and a good shinobi as well."

There is a whisper of something behind them, but Shikamaru doesn't need to turn around to know it's his father. Shikaku exchanges brief words with Itsukushima, before he is allowed to pass. He crouches down beside his wife, bowing to Kasuga before he begins to feed her his chakra. 

Kasuga hums, the trees on her pelt lightly shaking. 

"The men: an heir, and a clan head," she murmurs. "That is auspicious."

She looks between Shikamaru and his father, and Shikamaru ducks his head. He can tell the birth is coming, simply by the way he can feel the shadows of the collective Nara clan bowing at the lip of the forest. They will feed their chakra there so that Kasuga will have her fawn in a cocoon of safety and of power. 

Even now, he can feel her take in their strength and return it with her own, and with that of her fawn. It is like the lightning outside of the forest, like the thunder in Itsukushima's voice, like the faint smell of peaches on Sakura's hair, his father's aftershave and his mother's laughter. 

It is coming. 

"And the women, one who speaks shadow like a native tongue, and one of Onyomi's stock," Kasuga says, hind leg kicking at nothing. "Yes. This will be good for him."

She pushes as if it is nothing. She heaves and then breathes, the rain coming down harder now, then softening as she does. Shikamaru's eyes flicker to where her tail is lifted, where the head of the fawn and its two forelegs are carefully poking their way out of the mother. 

They are Kasuga's witnesses, so they wall watch, fueling their chakra not only into the earth and so into Kasuga, but also into her newborn. 

Itsukushima pads across the clearing, and dips his head low to nuzzle it against Kasuga's. 

"You're distracting me, dear," she murmurs, gently rubbing her snout against his. "What color is she?"

He does not need to lift his head to tell her. 

"All of them."

It takes little time after that. The fawn is born with one great heave, and the rain stops when the little thing enters the world. 

True to Itsukushima's word, the fawn is every color. They change rapidly as it adjusts to life outside of his mother. Kasuga stands, so the Nara and Sakura all carefully move back, providing the new mother some space. 

Kasuga looks over the fawn, carefully licking at her face as they struggle to stand. 

"How lovely you are," she murmurs to her firstborn. "What is your name?"

The fawn blinks, and slowly, his many colors coalesce into a soft opalescent white, that throws off the impression of a rainbow when Shikamaru squints at her pelt. A series of doe spots cover his sides, each of them a different color. A pair of small bumps on her crown suggests antlers. 

The different gendered characteristics appearing as one on the fawn suggests something extraordinary. 

"Kashima," the fawn whispers, shaking its ears. "My name is Kashima, haha-ue."

Kasuga smiles at her child, and carefully begins to lick him clean. 

"Happy birthday, Kashima-chan," she says. "Would you like to meet your father?"

Kasuga steps back so that Itsukushima can investigate their child. He rubs his muzzle against Kashima's. 

"You have my eyes," he says, pride clear in his voice. It is a rare show of affection from the usually stoic buck. 

"Kashima-chan," Kasuga says, "meet the Nara. They are the family with whom we are bonded."

Kashima turns around, completely sure on her new legs. 

"Nara Shikaku is the current clan head, and Nara Yoshino is his wife," Kasuga says, introducing her firstborn to Shikamaru's parents. 

Shikaku and Yoshino both bow deeply, and Kashima sniffs at their hair. The fawn seems to be satisfied, and licks tentatively at their hands there they are outstretched in front of them. 

"I'm very happy to meet you, Shikaku, Yoshino," he says. 

"The pleasure is ours, Kashima-sama," Shikaku replies. 

"We are very happy to welcome you into the world, Kashima-sama," Yoshino follows. 

"And here," Kasuga says, "is Nara Shikamaru, the heir of the Nara."

The white fawn peers down at Shikamaru, who for some reason, did not catch the memo to bow. Her eyes are strange, almost indescribable. Like Itsukushima says, they are like his father's. Deep, and oddly intelligent. Not oddly in that a deer should not have eyes so clever, but odd in that there is something in them that tells Shikamaru that Kashima is minutes old, but has already lived lifetimes. Has seen more of the past, the present, and the future, than Shikamaru could ever hope to in his meager time on the planet. 

Kashima sniffs him, then butts her nose against Shikamaru's cheek. 

"Haha-ue calls you Maru-chan," he says, voice high like a child's. "I'll call you that, too. You're my favorite."

Kashima's nose is cool, and the touch relieves the crick in the neck that Shikamaru had almost forgotten he had. He can almost hear his mother's intake of breath, a rare loss of control considering her ANBU training and her status as the Nara head's wife. 

Spirits rarely chose favorites. Itsukushima and Kasuga chose the heirs, the clan heads of the Nara, but they did not have favorites, or at least they were not so vocal about it. To be chosen so quickly was an honor that Shikamaru was not sure he would ever know the true capacity of. 

"You may call me whatever you wish, Kashima-sama," he replies, nearly stumbling over his words. "I hope that I can be of service to you in the future."

Kashima butts his nose against Shikamaru's forehead, sniffing at his hairline. 

"Kashima-chan," Kasuga says. "This last girl is Shikkotsu no Sakura. She is an heir of Onyomi, a much beloved friend."

Hearing Sakura being referred to as anything other than her family name is enough of a surprise that Shikamaru almost doesn't hear the rest of the conversation Kashima has with Sakura. 

Shikkotsu no Sakura? He had known that she was leaving the village, but she was releasing her name as well? Taking up the moniker of the sage region she had studied in? No wonder Ino had been livid with her when she had been; it was one thing to get indefinite leave to pursue a training goal or a specific lead for a specific mission. It was something else entirely to uproot all that you were for the sake of - well, for the sake of whatever it was Sakura was chasing. 

It meant that wherever she was going, she was going to make enemies that would put those who shared her family name in danger. Shikamaru suddenly has a keen need to know who exactly Onyomi is, and what their place is in Shikkotsu Forest. 

"A sage," Kashima murmurs, nuzzling the loose hair at Sakura's ear. "A sage that smells of peaches. I like you, too."

"I like you as well, Kashima-sama," Sakura replies, still blind and smiling as the fawn snuffles her cheek. "It is a pleasure to meet you."

"Shall we introduce you to the rest of the clan, Kashima-chan?" Kasuga asks, once her fawn has finished inspection the witnesses to his birth. 

She flicks her white ears back and forth, rainbow spots throwing off light that is not there in the dark of the forest. 

"I'd like that, haha-ue."

The Nara and Sakura take that as their cue to move, offering space for the small family of deer to walk by them. 

They do not presume to walk ahead of the spirits. Rather, they follow behind. Shikaku and Yoshino in front, Shikamaru and Sakura bringing up the rear. 

A sage. Sakura was a slug sage. Shikamaru wondered exactly how many people knew that information; clearly his parents were aware. They had not so much as twitched with mentions of Shikkotsu or this Onyomi character. 

It makes sense then, abruptly, almost violently, the fact of the matter slapping him in the back of the head the way Ino does when he's being particularly dense. A sage was allied with the Nara. A sage was burying the chakra of their sage region into the earth for a spirit to feed upon, for a spirit to be born upon. _Of course_  Kasuga and Itsukushima felt comfortable enough bearing young. 

It was not only peacetime that had ensured Kashima was born. It was Sakura, and the strength of Shikkotsu that had done so as well. Not only could the Nara protect the fawn, but so could Sakura, and the sage region she had bound herself to.

The forest gets less dense as they travel. He chances a glance at the strange girl walking beside him, and notices it when her eyes return to their usual clear green, and the black circles that swarm her body disappear into her skin. 

When they reach the lip of the forest, the whole of the Nara clan is bowing, children included. Even Shikari-obaa-sama has her head low to the earth, lower than she insists she is able to move at her age. 

In a show of wisdom behind her age, Kashima lowers her head to the ground. As one, she, and the entirety of the bowed Nara rise. 

All of them lay eyes on the new spirit, whose chakra they have partaken of and have returned. Some of the Nara weep at the sight of him, this white fawn with her multi-colored spots, and her little horns. His parents flanking him, massive Itsukushima and kind, green Kasuga. 

It is a sight that Shikamaru will never forget for as long as he lives. 

**Author's Note:**

> shikaku's line is absolutely stolen from ani difranco's 'shameless'. kasuga makes a deer pun completely unapologetically. she's that kind of mom.
> 
> all the spirits are named after shrines where deer show up as messengers~
> 
> please inform me of the spelling errors i inevitably made. i just started wearing contact lenses today and i am Adjusting lmao.


End file.
